Improvement in water-wheels



` UNIFn STATES- PATFNT OFFICE.

THoMAsMeAULFY, OF sAN FRANoIscO, OALIFORNIA.

IM PROYEMENT IN WATER-WH EELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N o. 55,323, dated June 5, 1866.

To all whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS MOAULEY, of the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Turbine Water-Wheels; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a section of a wheel; Fig. 2, an edge view or elevation; Fig. 3 is also an elevation, showing the dashboard D. Fig. 4 is a side elevation; Fig. 5, an edge or side view of a bucket; Fig. 6, a top view of the same, showing the surface on which the water acts. Fig. 7 is the outer end of the bucket, where the water iirst strikes. Fig. S is the inner end of the bucket, from which the water is discharged.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my wheel, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation as follows, to wit:

The manner of constructing my wheel is governed by its size andthe material of which it is to be built, as well as other circumstances, in connection with the machinery which it is intended to drive, and may be stated as consisting of two ways First, the ordinary large wooden wheel, Fig.

l, Showing the buckets B B B B in position,

also, the same parts (shown in Fig. 2) as constructed by bolting armsA into a center ange or hub, H, and on each side of these arms bolting narrow wooden segments S. To these segments, in the spaces between the arms of the wheel, are fastened a number of dat wooden plates,ff, which, together with the arms A,

constitute the buckets ofthe wheel, onto which the water is thrown from a common round nozzle, similar to those used for tire-engines or hydraulic mining.

My improvement in this style of wheel coni sists in using, in place of dat wooden floats,

a curved iron bucket, B, (shown in Figs. 6 and 7,) on which the water acts by striking into the bucket at the outer end, and is discharged 4toward the center of the wheel, Fig. 7, from the inner end of the bucket, Fig. 8.

Second. The other, and in most cases the best, manner of constructing my wheel is to use a solid center or web in place ot arms and segments, which may be of iron, or wood and iron combined, as in wooden drums for belts, in which ease the iron buckets are eurved,the same as in the wheel above described, but without the ridge or raised middle above described, and having no lugs or web for fastening them to the wheel, but are cast with the wheel; or, when the center or body of the wheel is of wood the buckets are cast in a ring or in segments S, Figs. and 4, by which they are bolted to the body of the wheel in such a manner as to overhang, thus leaving the center of the wheel clear of arms or anythin'g on which the water can react so as to retard the speed ofthe wheel.

In this style of wheel, described above, it is necessary to, use a dash-board, D, in place of the ridge R, in the bucket for throwing the water clear of the wheel, which may be of wood and attached to the frame-work which supports the wheel, with one end projected into the wheel, so as to receive the water when discharged from the buckets and convey it clear of the wheel, Fig 3 and 4.

The square-vent adjustable nozzle N, used with these wheels, is simply a square or rectangular openin g or vent,V, having a chamber, in one side in which is accurately fitted a'slide valve or gate, g, operated by means of a stem passing through a stuffing-box and worked by a screw and hand wheel or lever, so as to open and close the nozzle atwill, in like manner as in opening and closing the throttlevalve to a steam-engine.

l clairn- In combination with the water-wheel described, the discharge-nozzle N, arranged outside ofthe wheel, and the dash-board D, for joint operation, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 14th day of October, A. D. 1865.

THOMAS MOAULRY.` [es] Witnesses:

C. W. M. SMITH, W. 0. ANDREWS. 

